Glenn Eilers Explains the Buck He Took While His Cameraman Filmed

Glenn Eilers

Editor’s Note: When Glenn Eilers of Shelbyville, Kentucky, discovered PSE bows 8 years ago, he decided he’d found a bow that was made for him. He’s been able to use PSE bows to take some really nice whitetails.

Last season, I had a Mossy Oak cameraman with me, and we were trying to take a buck that scored 150 as an 8 pointer and had 9 inch brow tines. This buck also fell to my PSE Bow Madness. I had trail camera pictures of this buck, so we had identified the deer we were trying to take. We hunted the first week of the season. The first afternoon, the weather was about 100 degrees, and of course the buck didn’t show up. We’ve learned that even though the velvet antler deer are generally very predictable, the weather also plays a major role in when they move and don’t move. In extremely hot weather, they’ll often lie in cool, shady places and not move and feed until after dark, when the weather’s cooler. That’s what happened on this hunt. You have to remember when you’re using trail cameras to keep up with the deer’s movement patterns that the weather, the rut, the availability of food, the hunting pressure and many other factors can cause the deer not to show up when and where they’re supposed to show up. Also, even when you’ve got a deer nailed down like we thought we had this deer, if the region has a bad wind, you’re better off to back out. Don’t try to hunt that deer. Wait for the conditions to be right, before you go back and attempt to take him. When you’re hunting a buck 4 years old and older, you only may get one or two chances each season to try and bag that buck. Don’t blow your chances by trying to hunt him when the weather and the wind conditions aren’t right.

We returned to our hunting site the next day, in the middle of the day, and checked our trail camera. We saw that the deer had come in after dark. We knew he was still there, but the weather was so hot, we figured he probably wouldn’t come down the trail before sundown. The third day of the season, we had a cool front come through, and the temperature was 30 degrees cooler – about 70 degrees. This buck had another buck with him, and they both jumped the fence coming into the alfalfa field. We were able to watch the two bucks for about 15 minutes as they kept coming closer and closer. When the buck I wanted to take was at 15 yards, I drew my PSE Bow Madness and released the arrow. This buck scored in the 150s and was a fine trophy.